Titled Respite, the show will see him playing venues in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield in September and October 2019. He will also take the tour abroad to multiple other countries.

The comedian's producers explain: "Russell Howard returns to the live stage with his third and largest world tour to date, Respite. Russell begins the trip with a nationwide arena tour, including two shows at London's Wembley Arena in autumn 2019, during which he will perform 'in the round' wherever possible. Breaking the record for the biggest ever stand-up show in China on his last tour, he returns to play Shanghai and Beijing in 2020.

The UK dates are listed below. Tickets are on sale now from sites including Ticketmaster

Howard has been undertaking a series of work-in-progress warm-up gigs ahead of the tour. His next stand-up engagement is on Monday (12th November) in London, headlining the National Autistic Society's fundraising gig.

Ticket sales have opened on the same day that Howard returns to television. Series 2 of The Russell Howard Hour starts on Sky at 10pm tonight. It follows on from the first series, which accumulated more than 109 million views worldwide on social media.

A new strand for Series 2 sees Russell address his fear of mortality in Live Forever. Producers say: "With the aid of comedians, Russell participates in a mixture of scientifically proven, spiritual and 'perhaps slightly dubiously dubbed' life prolonging activities including getting päntsdrunk with Greg Davies, Chinese therapy with Jimmy Carr, Shaman healing with Roisin Conaty, Nordic Cuddling with Jon Richardson, Plastination with Rose Matafeo, Goat Yoga with Mo Gilligan and Cryotherapy with Paul Chowdhry."